Sixteen survivors were pulled from the water after a 19-person pontoon boat went down roughly 600 yards from Alcatraz Island Tuesday
A pontoon boat carrying 19 people capsized in San Francisco Bay on Tuesday, killing one person and leaving two others unaccounted for, according to The New York Times.
Of the 16 people pulled to safety, three were taken to hospitals with injuries. A dog that was on the boat also did not survive, according to The Times. All passengers are believed to have been adults, according to NBC News.
Authorities first received a report of a boat fire shortly after 3:30 p.m., but on arrival, fire chief Dean Crispen said, crews encountered a sinking vessel with no sign of any blaze, according to The Times. One passenger required CPR and was brought to shore immediately but did not survive, Crispen told NBC News.
Arriving crews found passengers scattered across a range of dire circumstances — already in the water, still clinging to the boat, or tumbling off its sides, Crispen told NBC News. The three-deck boat came to a stop approximately 600 yards off Alcatraz before going under; it now rests 120 feet below the surface, according to The Times.
The search for the two missing people drew resources from across multiple fire departments, with 11 vessels, divers, and helicopters participating, according to NBC News. Wind-driven whitecaps typical of the season complicated rescue efforts, Crispen acknowledged, though he emphasized that conditions would not halt the search.
"We are going to continue for hours to make sure we find these two missing people, if possible," Crispen told NBC News.
Mayor Daniel Lurie of San Francisco characterized the operation as requiring every available resource, calling it an all-hands-on-deck effort aimed at rescue, according to The Times. The vessel is reported to have launched from a yacht club, according to NBC News, and investigators were still gathering information at the time of the news conference.
